Francesco Bellina
Palermo, Italia
Francesco Bellina (Trapani, 1989) is a documentary photographer based in Palermo. His artistic work focuses mainly on contemporary socio-political issues with particular attention to the theme of migration. He attended the Law faculty in Palermo and simultaneously dedicated himself to photography.
In 2014 he started documenting the connections between Nigerian gangs and Sicilian mafia in Palermo and his body of work has been published on major international medias such as The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, Paris Match, Le Monde, Internazionale, L’Espresso, Washington Post, among others. The project, named Nigeria Connections, has been used as an academic thesis for the The Royal College of Surgeons in London. Moreover, a studio visit was programmed in Palermo in 2018, to allow people from different countries to analyze and discuss his photographic work. For over two years (2017-2018) Francesco has been working with Save the Children and the association Zen Insieme to give photography classes to children in the popular district Zen in Palermo.
Right now he’s working on the ongoing project Sex Slavery-in the name of God-, that follows the interlace of criminal organizations and voodoo rituals in Benin, Niger, Ghana and Sicily. His work Tanakra, that depicts the city of Agadez in Niger, has been exhibited at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. In 2019 he held a lecture at the World Press Photo exhibition in Bari, Torino and Palermo (Italy) about one of his latest project On a Gagné, a series of photos taken on board of the ship Mare Jonio during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2016 and 2017 he was nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass.
2017 - WPP Joop Swart Masterclass (nominated), 2016 - WPP Joop Swart Masterclass (nominated)
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Square One
Francesco Bellina
Taiwo poses with some of their flatmates, outside of their shared room some boys deported from Germany, in the neighborhood where they live, together with some of their friends with whom they share the apartment.
Ajegunle, Lagos, Nigeria, 2020.
Out on Der Spiegel https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fpolitik%2Fausland%2Faus-deutschland-zurueck-in-nigeria-das-ist-nicht-mehr-mein-land-es-ist-wie-die-hoelle-a-86571264-ac97-4a39-bd69-103830837e6d%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1cmt6dcdWCGFzYIC4ofF_EvbR3UxN_9sG64DPI8RtBv5e-1op9k7qTUG0%23fotostrecke-77d549bc-1bc1-4f24-9783-f902423d6e67&h=AT0U2Xg_q1g1na8hliD1EARSlsW7FIaYbAJYpodRXdvwyXLUWK_hgKq_c2jlxDQuvA7rwdotCbiOsN6YPFri0sc2nMNehmmTjMAXGhcfQV_9vkkDqbKa-Biruy8_wg79-ZKO-hmiwiHJZObYBMN5R8w7gYjU5Pdb0g
Coronavirus outbreak in Sicily
Francesco Bellina
An exausted nurse having a break at the hospital.
Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, Sicily, Italy, 2020